Recent technological developments in image acquisition, image planning software for dental implants, and software-based modeling allowed for a rapid, accurate, and controlled surgical planning and more accurate surgical placement of dental implants. Surgical guides, made to the shape and contour of a patient's anatomy, are used to precisely guide drilling a hole following the CT image plan's predetermined position, angle, and/or depth into a patient's jawbone. The finished hole is used for screwing in a dental implant. Such surgical planning and accurate surgical placement minimizes the patient's discomfort, reduces time for the surgical procedure, and patient's healing.
When drilling for a dental implant into the patient's jawbone, multiple drilling bits of different diameters are used in sequence to enlarge and obtain a hole with a desired size, shape, and depth. A series of drilling procedures requires meticulous planning and execution to minimize the patient's discomfort while ensuring accurate placement of the hole and avoiding vital structures such as the sinus cavity, inferior alveolar nerve and the mental foramen within the mandible. To facilitate the drilling procedures, a surgical guide maintains the position, angle, and/or depth of drilling bits while drilling. In each procedure, a slightly larger drill bit is used until the desired shape, diameter and depth of the hole is achieved.